On the Socratic Seminar

My cooperating teacher recently went to Rome for some teacher training, and she returned with some really amazing ideas for our classroom-- one being the use of the socratic seminar. She was excited to try it, and we immediately brainstormed ideas so that we could experiment with it right away. Our eleventh grade Brit lit students had been working on "sonnet packets" where they were required to identify the rhyme schemes and meter of the poems. We started to come up with ways to utilize the already existing sonnet packets for a socratic seminar later that day. Suddenly, in the middle of our brainstorming, she received a phone call that her son needed to be picked up from school immediately. She gave me the green light to experiment with the socratic seminar during the last period of the day. I thought about it over lunch and decided to go for it. I am so glad I did. It was by far the best and most rewarding experience I've had so far in my teaching experience.

I moved four desks to the front of the room forming a pod. I asked the students to free write for five minutes about the first sonnet in the packet which was Spenser's sonnet 75. The students were somewhat familiar with it, so I didn't feel bad asking them to analyze its meaning and themes. I explained that I needed four volunteers to discuss the sonnet in front of the class. Without hesitation, four students walked to the front of the room and began a discussion. I kept quiet for awhile as they spoke about the ideas of true love, monogamy, death, and legacy. I actually got tears in my eyes a few times during this activity. I knew my students were intelligent and articulate, but it was one of those moments that I was truly and profoundly proud of them. I could see that they were genuinely understanding and grasping the timeless themes in a classic piece of literature. And I just sat there and listened, and asked appropriate questions when necessary. At one point, I moved the conversation to the modern day by asking them to name songs that discuss similar themes or ideas. The majority of the class ended up participating in the socratic seminar that day, and I can say with honestly that this was a definite turning point for me as a student teacher. If you ever have the chance to experiment with the socratic seminar-- just do it! You will not be disappointed.